For the user of a vehicle, there is often the problem that he/she must honor various appointments at various locations within a specific period of time. For that, a travel route should be planned for the vehicle. In so doing, the travel route should be planned such that the user will reach the locations at which the appointments are taking place in time with the vehicle. In the process, it must be taken into account that from time to time, the energy storage unit must be replenished again. Particularly in the case of electric-powered vehicles, the charging of the battery must be integrated as well as possible into the travel-route planning, since the traveling range of an electric-powered vehicle is usually substantially less than that of a conventional vehicle which is powered by a fuel.
German Application No. DE 195 19 107 describes a route-advisor device especially for an electric-powered vehicle. The device described includes a data-input unit for the input of one or more destinations for a trip and a road-network memory for storing the locations on the road network able to be traveled by the vehicle, and the associated location distances. The device further includes a computer unit for determining one or more possible routes from the vehicle location to the destinations, including necessary energy-feeding operations at one or more energy-feeding locations as a function of the amount of energy available in the energy storage unit, the energy-fueling network and the itinerary-specific energy consumption. Finally, the device includes a display unit for displaying the routes determined by the arithmetic logic unit.
German Application No. DE 10 2004 022 265 describes a method for working out a route from a point of departure to a destination in a navigation system. In the method, one factor which influences the energy consumption in traveling the route is taken into account when working out the route.
German Application No. DE 100 59 746 describes a method for computer-assisted travel-route planning and travel-route guidance, which takes dynamic changes in the traffic situation and changes of appointments into account.
European Application No. EP 1 300 817 describes a navigation-data provision system. In this system, route data is sent out, which is selected as a function of user-preference data. The route data is received by a navigation terminal and used for the road routing for the vehicle.
European Application No. EP 1 201 849 describes a method and a device for assigning parking space. In the method, an inquiry about a parking possibility is made via a transceiver in a vehicle to the device for assigning parking space. This inquiry includes information about the current position of the vehicle. Based on this, the device ascertains the nearest available parking possibility and transmits it as destination information to the vehicle. Subsequently, the anticipated time of arrival is calculated, and at a predefined lead time prior to the anticipated time of arrival, it is checked whether the ascertained parking possibility is still available. If the parking possibility is available, the option exists to reserve it for the vehicle. If the parking possibility is no longer available, the device determines a new parking possibility and transmits corresponding information to the vehicle.
German Application No. DE 103 02 504 describes a method for determining the traveling range of an electric-powered vehicle. In the method, vehicle-related, route-related and/or environment-related information about the vehicle and a route planned or a route presently to be traveled are ascertained by a vehicle computer and processed. From this information, the remaining traveling range of the electric-powered vehicle is calculated and displayed.
German Application No. DE 10 2005 055 243 describes a method for determining a road routing for a vehicle which is favorable from the standpoint of energy. In the method, the starting point and the end point of the itinerary is input. In addition, vehicle-specific information, particularly charging information is made available. The vehicle-specific information provided is compared to stored itinerary data in the form of vehicle-specific information and energy consumption. Thereupon, a route with minimized energy consumption is selected based on the stored itinerary data as a function of the vehicle-specific information provided, as well as the starting point and end point. Finally, the data concerning the selected road routing is output.
German Application No. DE 10 2009 053 982 describes a system for calculating a motor-vehicle route optimized from the standpoint of consumption. The system has a position receiver, a traffic-information receiver and an arithmetic logic unit, with whose aid a route to a destination is able to be calculated. The arithmetic logic unit is able to calculate a route optimized in terms of consumption, using the vehicle-individual and/or driver-individual consumption-relevant data.